Nostalgia, The New Yorker and Why We Still Go to Concerts Today

Ever since I was a child I can remember wishing that I'd been born in the 1950's. No. I was not and still am not really a fan of DooWop. Rather, I realized then that if I'd been born in the '50s I would be a teenager in the '60s...when music really began (at least in my opinion). Live music began long before the '60s, but it was in that decade--ripe with drugs, radicalism, activism, youth-culture and free love--that it really took hold in a way never before seen or documented by our society.


If you read The New Yorker you may have noticed that the August 10-17, 2009 issue included a piece by John Seabrook called "The Price of the Ticket". I won't get into all the details, but the article gives some insight into the state of live concerts, Ticketmaster, LiveNation. The piece also delves into scalping and how, due to the internet, this formerly criminal act is basically legal and making millionaires out of lazy schlubs who don't want to leave the house.

Aside from its enlightening content, the basic message of the piece was this: there is nothing quite like live music. Even when tickets are posted for $400-$1,500, fans--eager for the thrill of a live concert with their favorite band--will pay.

I liked Seabrook's statement that cheap tickets mean concerts sell out and are "the price the industry pays to preserve the illusion that the '60s never ended." It's funny, because I am a child of the 1980s. I grew up during the era of Debbie Gibson, acid wash jeans and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I was 20 years too late for the '60s; yet that era holds such enormous meaning for my friends and me. It's part of the reason why I go to concerts today: to get that unmatched thrill that ignited way back when.